1 in 2 new graduates are jobless or underemployed that is Freakin 50%

[AnotherMcIntosh]

27. Then here's some advice. Free, of course.

1. To guarantee that you can immediately gain admission to the bar upon graduation without taking a bar exam in a state which makes an effort to protect the economic future of its attorneys, consider Marquette University Law School or the University of Wisconsin Law School, both in Wisconsin. Wisconsin recognizes a diploma privilege for those two schools.

Even if you don't want to practice in Wisconsin forever, if you put in a few years, you can then transfer to many states which admit out-of-state attorneys on motion. Of course, if you've studied sufficiently with respect to how to take bar exams, you could even take a bar exam in your home state if you are from a state other than Wisconsin.

2. Get involved with politics even if you don't want to be a politician. You need to know how to fake sincerity. The politicians are the best. Some, of course, are better than others.

It also helps to have contacts regardless of whether you want to maximize your opportunity to get clients or if you want to help someone get out of trouble (including yourself, if necessary).

3. I'm sorry to say it, but a lot of the law business is just show business. If you go into a law office that has law books on obvious display, you might also notice that a lot of those law books look like they have never been opened. The books, the print-outs from online legal research, etc., are for many attorneys - including some of the highest paid ones - just props.

When you get into the business of practicing law, your business will be to produce paper. Under ideal conditions, you will produce a lot of billing statements. At other times, you will be recycling language from memorandums, wills, trusts, deeds, or whatever concerns your clients. Origional thinking is generally not required. A good smile, however, is.

4. To get the most amount of money, you need to be a clock watcher with an imagination. There may still be attorneys who don't double-bill or triple-bill for the time that they have actually spent on clients' cases, but those are the honest ones. An attorney who charges $300 an hour for 10 minutes of actual work is making $1,800 an hour. If the attorney claims that two hours were involved, he or she just doubled the actual hourly rate to $3,600 an hour.

5. You might ask, "How do you get clients that will pay that?" For one thing, you can go into the divorce business. It's easy as long as you have a license. I don't recommend this if you are basically a humane person and want to sleep at night. But if you don't mind following the lead of some attorneys, tell a client that you charge $300 and hour and that you need a $2,000 retainer. Watch the client. If they don't flinch, you can waste some time going back and forth to court for minor appearances which don't actually move the case forward, then tell them that you need more money for the retainer. You can take one, two, or more years with a minor case. With a little bit of practice, you can suck $10,000 out of someone's bank account without too much trouble. Of course, always blame the other attorney for all the delays and meaningless court appearances. Don't feel guilty about this. In his office, he'll be returning the favor.

6. Learn some lawyer and judge jokes.

E.g., What do your call an honest judge in Chicago?

Answer: A tourist.


Good luck to you.